Energy of the future: Santa Cruz group to travel to New Jersey get scoop on hydrogen-powered building

SANTA CRUZ -- Members of Kids 4 Hydrogen, a Santa Cruz-based nonprofit organization, will travel to New Jersey next week to learn how to build a hydrogen-powered building.

The organization, which promotes hydrogen technology, is sending members to meet with Mike Strizki, CEO and founder of the Hydrogen House Project.

In partnership with the Merit Academy, a Santa Cruz private school, the organization is hoping that its trip to New Jersey leads to the establishment of the first solely hydrogen-powered building in California.

Michael Beck, 24, the project lead for Kids 4 Hydrogen and a Cabrillo College student, said he believes that hydrogen is an energy of the future because it is clean and sustainable. "Hydrogen is emerging," Beck said. "We're trying to make it more widespread."

In its trip to New Jersey, Kids 4 Hydrogen will be learn from someone at the forefront of hydrogen technologies in Strizki.

He designed a hydrogen system for his home in New Jersey that provides 100 percent of power needs. "Strizki has powered his whole house and his cars by hydrogen," Beck said. "He really went all out."

Perhaps the biggest endorsement for Strizki's project came during Hurricane Sandy. When New Jersey was left reeling from the devastation of Sandy, Strizki's home was the only one in the state that had electricity. "He got a lot of attention during the hurricane," Beck said of Strizki.

Kids 4 Hydrogen team members will be touring Strizki's facilities and learning how to properly implement such a system.

When they return, the Merit Academy will be a proving ground. "They're (the Merit Academy) looking to create an entirely sustainable infrastructure," Beck said. "We want to use their site as an experiment site in Santa Cruz."

The primary hydrogen technology that Kids 4 Hydrogen have been researching is hydrogen fuel cells. These fuel cells work in many ways like standard batteries with a cathode and the anode sides.

The fuel cell produces electricity by stripping hydrogen molecules of their electrons, which then flow out of the cell in the form of electricity.

Despite the fact that the majority of its members are based in the Santa Cruz area, Kids 4 Hydrogen membership is not restricted geographically. The organization spans the west coast with members from Washington to Los Angeles. But the group's leadership will remain in the Santa Cruz area, as Beck is training Soquel High School 11th grader Lexie Lyons to fulfill his post next year.